Category: Retailer

Making local stores shoppable from their digital properties has been a key strategy for retail leaders serving customers who increasingly start their shopping online. With Whole Foods becoming a part of Amazon, connected stores will fast become table stakes in the competitive retail industry. Amazon has long competed on selection, price and logistics. Connected stores with same hour convenience in 450 locations are likely on the way.

The strategy is simple — offer mobile shoppers a quick and convenient way to shop online from local store inventory. Build the experience into a mobile app, often promoted through a loyalty program. Let the store become an efficient pickup point. Promote and reward regular in-store shopping trips. Offer curbside pickup in an hour or less for time-crunched customers who like quick convenience. Retailers like CVS who have established these programs are better prepared to compete with Amazon. They have a head start offering new options that are likely to come to Whole Foods locations in their trading areas.

Amazon has been a tough competitor, but has largely struggled to gain traction with quick convenience. In most markets, Amazon has not been able to offer immediate gratification to the consumer. Amazon has had difficulty fulfilling digital orders in an hour. That is likely to change, if several of the programs currently piloted by Amazon come to Whole Foods locations.

This news is a call to action to refine current order ahead programs or get a branded, connected store program quickly in place. Fortunately, there are best practices, mature technologies and great metrics that allow retailers to scale these programs quickly. The key for the retailer is to choose the experiences that are right for their customers, consistent with their brand and sustainable over time.

At Curbside, we work with retailers and restaurants on digital ordering programs that deliver quick convenience to consumers. We offer a full suite of products, including a white label platform for digital ordering and a pick/pack tool for efficient fulfillment. We connect apps and websites to local stores. We have a passion for developing great new customer experiences for the digital age. With the news today, that digital age is coming more quickly.

Across most retail verticals, the long term viability of physical stores is being called into question. In 2016, a comScore/UPS study marked the first time consumers made more of their purchases — 51% — online than in stores, a number that will only continue to rise. Consumers are increasingly starting their shopping journey online, and at the same time are mobile, on-the-go, and seeking instant gratification. Delivery times, a source of friction for consumers that shop online, are now dropping down to just 1 to 2 days or less as Amazon has led the charge in providing the most cost-effective and convenient way for consumers to get everything they need.

Retailers must evolve to meet the changing demands of consumers and they need to do it fast because Amazon is accelerating their domination of the online channel, where most consumers begin their shopping journey.

To get this right, brick-and-mortar retailers must:

Be fast. Quickly put in place a core set of capabilities that deliver convenient, frictionless online shopping experiences around local stores.

Be future-focused. Go on the offensive by leveraging their proximity to shoppers, having their order ready, ideally in under 30 minutes, a feat even Amazon struggles to match in a cost-effective way.

Be dedicated. Conduct fulfillment at local stores flawlessly, using a set of highly efficient software tools.

For more information on how Curbside works and how it’s powering the future of retail, contact us. To learn more about how retailers can compete in the Age of Amazon, sign up now to read the white paper “Click and Collect: Not if, but when and how.”

CVS Health today announced the national launch of CVS Pharmacy® Curbside Pickup to more than 4,000 store locations nationwide. CVS Curbside Pickup allows customers to shop ahead of time from their mobile device or online for thousands of non-prescription items. Orders are then delivered right to their car within an hour at any participating CVS Pharmacy location. This latest digital tool was designed by CVS Health and Curbside, a company perfecting the store pickup experience for retailers and consumers, making it more convenient and accessible for customers nationwide to get the health, beauty and grocery essentials they need without getting out of their car. “As part of our commitment to redefining the shopping experience for our customers through digital innovation, we are thrilled to launch CVS Curbside Pickup at locations nationwide,” said Brian Tilzer, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, CVS Health. “The roll-out of CVS Curbside on such a large scale represents our commitment to creating digital innovations that make customers’ lives easier as well as marks a groundbreaking milestone in the retail industry.”

First launched as a CVS Express pilot program this past spring in San Francisco, Atlanta and Charlotte, NC, CVS Curbside Pickup was developed as the industry’s first retail solution that integrates Curbside’s market-leading technology right into the CVS Pharmacy app, providing a convenient solution for busy customers. CVS Curbside Pickup is now available in 40 major markets across the U.S., including many locations in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle and Washington, DC. CVS Curbside Pickup allows CVS Pharmacy shoppers to purchase thousands of front store and over-the- counter items, while at home or on-the- go via the CVS Pharmacy app or at CVS.com, with no added cost to the customer for utilizing the service.

“To meet the demands of today’s increasingly mobile and on-the- go customers, CVS Pharmacy and Curbside have created the first service that expands the role of thousands of retail pharmacy locations across the country to provide efficient online fulfillment at the local store”; said Jaron Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Curbside. “Curbside’s proprietary technology for smooth pickup and in-store pick and pack operations is helping CVS Pharmacy connect its store locations to online commerce while providing a tremendous service to customers at a nationwide scale.”

To use CVS Curbside Pickup, customers simply open their CVS Pharmacy app and select the CVS Curbside Pickup option, choose the products they would like to purchase and then select CVS Curbside Pickup as the delivery method. The order is then ready in about an hour or less and is delivered right to the car whenever the customer arrives at the selected CVS Pharmacy location, creating a more efficient and time-effective solution for shoppers. Additionally, customers using CVS Pharmacy’s long-running and popular ExtraCare loyalty program will continue to earn their eligible ExtraBucks Rewards and receive weekly ad sale prices on CVS Curbside Pickup orders as long as they link their ExtraCare card to their cvs.com account when placing curbside pickup orders. ExtraBucks Rewards and ExtraCare coupons and offers sent to customer cards digitally are also eligible to be used during CVS Curbside Pickup orders. For more information about CVS Curbside Pickup, please visit www.cvs.com/curbside For more information about Curbside, please visit https://shopcurbside.com/retailers/company/.

Curbside pickup is now available at hundreds of CVS Pharmacy stores across the Philadelphia Metro Area! Now you can get same-day pickup on all your household, beauty, and health essentials from your neighborhood CVS store, without ever leaving your car.

Shop Curbside by browsing products at a store location near you on the web or in the app. Add products to your Curbside cart, checkout, and we’ll text you when your order is ready for pickup. Swing by the store at your convenience and we’ll bring your order out to your car.

Curbside pickup is now available at even more locations in Northern California! Now at a CVS near you, get same-day pickup on all your household, beauty, and health essentials from your neighborhood CVS Pharmacy store, without ever leaving your car.

Shop Curbside by browsing products at a store location near you on the web or in the free mobile app. Add products to your Curbside cart, checkout, and we’ll text you when your order is ready for pickup. Swing by the store at your convenience and we’ll bring your order out to your car.

The Curbside experience for both shoppers and local retailers is simpler than ever. Today, we are excited to announce a new partnership with CVS Health to launch CVS Express at hundreds of CVS Pharmacy stores.

Now you can shop your neighborhood CVS Pharmacy right inside the Curbside or CVS mobile app, place and pick up your order at the curb. It’s that easy. The best part? It’s 100% free – no mark-ups or added fees – and your order is ready in under an hour.

This is just the latest example of how Curbside is ushering in the next generation of mobile shopping.

Brick and mortar retailers are quickly evolving to help busy shoppers, like you, take care of everyday errands. At Curbside, we’re helping to reimagine store pickup by powering key technology for some of the world’s largest retail brands.

How? By accurately knowing just what items are in stock at your local store, providing tools to help store employees quickly pick and pack them, and alerting your store in real-time so they can meet you at the curb with your order.

In addition to this partnership, we’re also announcing a strategic investment from CVS to advance the retail shopping experience. CVS Express powered by Curbside is live at stores across three major markets – the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta and Charlotte with more coming soon.

We are excited to introduce Curbside Web. Now you can shop at your favorite local stores online, with convenient Curbside pickup when you arrive at the store.

The new website lets you shop online, or on mobile, or both, moving from one to the other at your convenience. Place your order online and we’ll send a “Pickup Pass” to your phone. When your order is ready for pickup, just swing by the store and we’ll meet you out front with your order. Show your Pickup Pass when you arrive at the store and you’re ready to go!

Feeling under the weather, have a car full of kiddos, or are you just short on time? Curbside makes shopping easier and gives you time back to spend on what matters most to you.

Shop through the free Curbside app for all your CVS staples, including vitamins, over the counter medicine, beauty items, household products and more, and we’ll package the items up and bring them out to your car. Best of all, it’s completely free with no markups or hidden fees!

Since we created Curbside just over a year ago, shoppers have continually told us how much they love shopping local stores straight from their mobile phone and then picking up right at the curb for free less than an hour later. No hassles with parking, finding items on shelves or waiting in never-ending checkout lines have made battling the shopping wars easier than ever.

Yet, we all have those days where we absolutely need to grab something from the store but just can’t get out of the house. With Curbside and our friends at Uber, we’re here to help.

Today we’re introducing Curbside with UberRUSH, a new way to shop to make your experience easier than ever. Simply shop on beta.shopcurbside.com and then select the UberRUSH delivery option – currently available in San Francisco, Chicago and New York City – at checkout. Next, you’ll get a delivery window based on your distance to the nearest store. Then, a courier from UberRUSH will pick up your order and bring it to you.

For retailers, the handoff through UberRUSH decreases the time to fulfill customers’ orders and reduces overhead costs. Curbside’s retail technology already enables a world-class Curbside pickup option, but now it also connects retailers to great same-day delivery via UberRUSH. Combining Curbside technology with UberRUSH connects local stores to the next generation of mobile commerce, enabling brick and mortar retailers to meet customers where and when it’s most convenient for them.

Whether you’re a shopper or a retailer, Curbside and UberRUSH is a win-win. Shopping doesn’t get much easier than that.